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ROSWELL—Since her children were born, it has been Maddy
Kohrumel’s dream that one of them may choose to follow a vocation to the
priesthood or Religious life.
She also strongly wants to support priests and Religious, so she
decided to find out more about Serra, an organization that fosters and promotes
church vocations, at the first Serra conference March 18. What she discovered
was support for her own spiritual journey.
During a break between speakers, Kohrumel, a parishioner at St.
John Neumann Church, Lilburn, called what she had been learning
“phenomenal.”
“This so touches our everyday life ... I wish my whole church
could be here,” she said.
At the conference, dozens of lay Catholics gathered to learn more
about their role in vocations and in the church.
Highlighted by eucharistic adoration and talks by priests,
Religious and laity, the theme of the conference, held at Queen of Angels
School, was “Hear My Voice,” based on the Gospel of John.
Following an opening Mass celebrated by Father Frank McNamee,
administrator of St. Peter Chanel Mission, people settled into the school
gymnasium to listen to various speakers. A pod in the school was set up for
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament throughout the day.
Father Jack Durkin, parochial vicar at St. John Neumann Church,
Lilburn, admired the openness of Catholics, who can appreciate a celibate man
discussing the vocation of marriage.
“I love the church,” he said. “What incredible
faith in the people of God that they understand that Jesus, an unmarried man,
had everything to say about marriage and so a man who decides to conform his
life to Jesus should hopefully have something to say about marriage. It’s
so beautiful.”
Father Durkin said that the call to marriage is the first call.
“We could not understand a priest’s vocation to
celibacy, nor could we understand a sister’s vocation to celibacy, unless
we understand that the most natural thing, the most incredible thing, the thing
that we’re made for, is to be married to somebody else.”
The first blessing and command to Adam and Eve was the voice of
God that said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the face of the earth
and you are to have dominion over the earth and subdue it,’ Father Durkin
said.
“That call is the call today; it’s the call forever; it
was the first call,” he said. “It is the call until the end of time.
It was the call of Jesus ... It’s a call for one who is married in
conjugal love and it is a call for one who is wed in chaste and celibate love.
It’s the covenant that can never be denied even though we as humans denied
the covenant; Jesus never ever gives up.”
Father Durkin said that salvation history is about God loving us
and asking us to love him back.
“Love is a choice and he can never force us to love because
love, by its very nature, is free. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are free and
they freely donate themselves to each other and are so unified by the power of
love—the Father loved the Son so much that we have the Holy Spirit,”
he said.
“The call was for Adam to love Eve so much that they would
establish a third, a child, and that their love would bring forth life to
imitate the creation of the Father in heaven ... So that has always been the
call of love, of families, of a bride and a bridegroom. All of humanity being
wed to the bridegroom, God.”
Father Durkin said that in marriage, spouses are called to love as
Jesus loved, even when it hurts.
“Jesus didn’t give us quality time, he gave us all his
time — every ounce of every second of our life,” he said. “Love
is not about fitting people into our schedule; it’s about loving people
and maybe changing our schedule.”
Because humans are called first and foremost to love God and to
imitate him, there is no true love without holiness, Father Durkin said.
“Jesus starts his public ministry at the wedding of Cana and
it ends with the wedding feast of the Lamb. And how does he present himself?
‘I am the bridegroom and you are my bride,’” he said. “Any
call to a marriage is to imitate that. Holiness first, true love later.”
Many were touched by Father Durkin’s talk. Kevin McGrath,
vice president of programs for the North Metro Serra Club, said that it is
encouraging to people to hear about marriage from a priest.
“We are fed so much about marriage from a secular point of
view,” he said. “It’s great to have a priest to talk to us from
the spiritual angle.”
Mary Beth Bracy, a lay evangelist and freelance writer, has been
actively spreading information about perpetual adoration of the Eucharist for
the past five years in the United States and internationally. She spoke to
conference attendees about the vocation to the single life and the beauty of
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Bracy believes that many vocations and commitments to Christ come
from experiences in adoration.
“My experience is that if ever a personal relationship with
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is proclaimed and experienced ... young people
flock to give their life to him in droves,” she said.
Bracy spoke of her own call to the single life, one which many
people might refer to as a “mission impossible.”
“The call to the single life is a call to love,” she
said. “St. Therese (of Lisieux) has been called the greatest saint of
modern times and she is the patroness of virgins.”
Bracy is widely published. Her writings have appeared in “The
Catholic Answer,” “Parish Visitor” and “The Family.”
She recently published her first book, “Behold the Lamb,” with
mediations on the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
With a soft voice and a strong faith, Bracy believes strongly in
the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and has devoted her life to
telling others about the gift of the Eucharist and adoration.
“In churches, seminaries and dioceses where there are chapels
of perpetual adoration, there is an increase to the priesthood and Religious
life,” she said.
She pointed out that one seminary in Connecticut, after beginning
perpetual adoration, had their enrollment double, and that in dioceses where
there are many chapels of perpetual adoration, there is “an abundance of
vocations.”
She recalled her first semester at college as a time of
“great searching,” and described an experience that she had when one
evening, desperately wanting to pray before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, she
came upon the chapel, tried the door handle, only to find it locked.
“It was the pain of that moment and the moments that
followed, that led me to work so that every parish would have an open door, be
a place of welcome for perpetual adoration so that people can come to Jesus day
and night and all can enter into the arms of Christ.”
Inspired by Bracy’s deep love for Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament, many people spent their lunch breaks in eucharistic adoration.
Others chose to eat lunch off campus or in the school cafeteria or took the
opportunity to browse and shop for religious books and items. Still others took
advantage of the opportunity for the sacrament of penance, provided by the many
priests who attended the conference
Following lunch, Msgr. George Kelly, an author and priest of the
Archdiocese of New York, spoke about the universal vocation and the call of the
laity. Msgr. Kelly named his talk “What You Can Do For the Church Better
Than I.”
“We live in somewhat of a godless culture and priests cannot
change that culture,” he said. “Laity can change that culture.”
Msgr. Kelly said that we live in a “violent age, devoid of
any root in God.”
“Secularism, the godchild of atheism, is the body of belief
which equates human beings (with) the end all and be all of culture—the
religion of humanity.” he said. “The chief victim of secularism is
the family.”
He spoke of B’nai B’rith, a Jewish organization working
to ensure that Jews are represented well in the media and in the secular world.
The group, Msgr. Kelly said, is made up of powerful businessmen and other
influential people.
“It was an experience for me of laity in action that I have
never seen before,” he said.
Msgr. Kelly said that his dream is to one day have a B’nai
B’rith for Catholics—a group of lay Catholics who would “affect
the social institutions of our society.”
“Why not?” he asked. “Why can’t we have a
group that is as effective as B’nai B’rith? The time has come for
someone to energize (society). Right now we are awash with godlessness.”
Msgr. Kelly also emphasized the need for holy families.
“Priests come out of families,” he said.
Following Msgr. Kelly’s talk, Sister Jane Dominic, OP, a
Dominican sister of the Congregation of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tenn., spoke
of the consecrated vocation.
Beginning in a humorous way, Sister Dominic gave examples of
various Hollywood portrayals of sisters, such as “Sister Act” and
“The Sound of Music.” She said that many young women visit her
blossoming community each year to find the true portrait of consecrated life.
“Each year about 150 to 200 young women come to Nashville,
Tennessee, to visit our community and they stay with us for one night or they
stay for sometimes an entire week to really live with us, to pray with us, to
try to discern if God is calling them,” she said. “Each summer, 10 to
15 women enter as postulants.”
She said that her community is not alone, that many Religious
communities throughout the country are growing in numbers.
Sister Dominic’s community currently has 34 novices with an
average age of 24.
With an easy laugh and a gentle voice, Sister Dominic said most
women who express a desire to enter into the Religious life are striving for
personal holiness. She spoke of her own call, which began with her loving and
faith-filled parents, and she believes that vocations start with loving
parents.
“I cannot imagine anything more wonderful than being the
child of parents who love each other,” she said.
One of her fondest memories from her childhood is praying with her
mother, who taught her how to pray.
“I remember that because she was showing me she loved
me,” she said. “She was showing me how to speak to Jesus. She was
teaching me about God.”
It is the witness of families and of parishes that foster
vocations, Sister Dominic said.
“Research has shown that Religious vocations come from
active, involved and vibrant parishes, where there is support for priests,
support for Religious sisters,” she said. “Also, where people are
encouraged to think about the priesthood, think about Religious life. So many
of our sisters say that they began to discern a vocation only after someone
said, ‘Hey, have you ever thought about being a sister?’”
She described what kind of person to approach to encourage a
Religious vocation.
“Look for the wholesome, healthy, all-American type, even if
they look Chinese,” the Chinese-American sister said. “Don’t
look for the loner, the quiet person who doesn’t like to talk to other
people that’s kind of off in a corner, because those who make the best
sisters are those who are full of joy, who have a generosity, who are willing
to get in and share themselves.”
She said they have an attraction to things that are spiritual,
enjoy volunteering and, most importantly, are full of life.
Sister Dominic described Religious vows as a “flowering of
baptismal vows” because the sisters must commit their lives to Christ,
forsaking private property, marriage and their own will.
“In baptism, we give up bad things,” she said. “In
Religious vows, we give up the best things for love of the one best
thing—Jesus Christ.”
Following Sister Dominic’s talk, Father McNamee spoke of the
ordained vocation, which he described as “the most wonderful
vocation.”
“I think I started thinking about the priesthood in my early
teens and this notion of priesthood was always in my mind, and I never really
thought much about it until I had a tremendous experience where I truly
experienced the presence of God and he called me to the priesthood,” he
said.
Father McNamee spoke of his experience traveling to Lourdes,
France, where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette. It was in praying in front of
the Lourdes grotto that he experienced a “true sense of peace” in his
life and felt God calling him to be a priest.
“I have been ordained five years and I’ve never looked
back,” he said. “I’m very happy ... I am truly humbled and
honored to serve the Lord at his altar.”
He said in looking back along his journey to the priesthood there
have been people along the way who have played a part in his life as a priest.
The example of his parents, however, has been the most influential in Father
McNamee’s life. Every night at 9 p.m., the McNamee family would turn off
the television and pray the rosary. He remembers the faith of his mother and
father who helped to form his own faith.
“That has stayed with me so much,” he said. “Those
two people have been the foundation of my faith and I know from their prayers
and their example, they have brought me to where I am today.”
He also thanked the Serrans for their work and support and said he
would not be standing before them had it not been for the prayers of the
faithful supporters for priests. He said that the challenge for everyone is to
build up the kingdom of God by working together.
“All of us are different and unique and have our gifts and
talents,” he said. “We have our special calling whether it be
priesthood, Religious life, married life, single life, the diaconate. But
together we work for the greater glory of God.”
Father McNamee then led the group in a closing prayer and
Benediction.
After the conference, many who attended reflected on what they
learned from the speakers. For some, it gave them the opportunity to reflect on
their own vocation. For others, it was a chance to learn more about the church.
Kohrumel called the conference “awesome.”
“I’m leaving with a deeper love for our church and
greater love for our priests and Religious, and I want to encourage and support
them in their vocation just as they try so hard to encourage me,” she
said. “This conference has really encouraged me to be more present to my
husband and family and in doing this I’m also being more present to
Jesus.”
McGrath said that the conference accomplished the goals that Serra
intended.
“It was not just a conference for Serra members or for
someone discerning a vocation. It was really for anyone,” he said.
“It gave us a chance to grow spiritually and also gave us great
understanding of the ordained and consecrated vocations and what we as lay
people can do to en-courage and support them.”
Plans are already underway for the next Serra conference,
“Speak Lord, I’m Listening,” to be held March 24, 2001.
For more information about Serra Clubs, visit their website at
www.serraatlanta.org. |
